our saviour lutheran church the seeker · the coming year should be an exciting one for our saviour...
TRANSCRIPT
Our Saviour Lutheran Church
THE SEEKER O
ur Sa
viour Eva
ngelica
l Luth
eran
Ch
urch
56 C
levelan
d D
rive C
roton-O
n-Hu
dson
, NY
10520
(9
14) 271-4632
Rev. Dr. Arden Strasser, Pastor JANUARY 2018
Sun
da
y Worsh
ip Sched
ule
Sun
da
y School: 9:0
0 a
m
Worsh
ip: 10
:00
am
C
offee Hou
r: followin
g w
orship
W
eekd
ay O
ffice Schedu
le
Office h
ours: 9
:00
am
- 12:00
O
ffice Ph
one: (914) 271-4632
Office E
-ma
il: ma
il@ou
rsaviou
rcroton.org
W
ebsite: w
ww
.oursa
viourcroton
.org
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE -John Keil
The coming year should be an exciting one for Our Saviour
Lutheran Church. We hope to call our next pastor in 2018, and when the
time comes, the congregation will meet (and hear preach) any candidates recommended by our Call Committee, and decide upon any offers to be
made. We have many social ministry and outreach projects in progress, including cooking meals for the needy, refining the inclusivity of our
message to newcomers, and collaborating with other local houses of
worship on settling a refugee family. More immediately, be sure to come to our annual Chili Cook-Off in the Parish Hall on January 21, 2018
starting at 5:30 pm. In past years this has proven a great occasion for
warm food and winter fellowship.
As always, please be mindful of our need for proper stewardship of
the church’s finances and property, not just for special occasions but also for fixed expenses, and consider increasing your contributions or
automating them through enrollment in Simply Giving. Although we
recently completed a promising stewardship campaign, the amount pledged is not, by itself, sufficient to cover our anticipated expenses. We
will continue to develop contributions to meet both regular expenses and
capital improvements, and ask you to be mindful in your giving, as well as
continuing to honor your past or current pledges of support.
If you have any questions or thoughts about how you might contribute to our church community, please do not hesitate to contact me
by email at [email protected], or by personally approaching me or any
member of the Council. I hope everyone in our community has had a joyous Christmas season, and wish them a healthy and fulfilling New
Year.
2018 COUNCIL MEMBERS Our Congregational Council members would like to keep the conversations and ideas
that will move our church in the right direction going. If you have any ideas that you
feel Our Saviour can benefit from, please...Talk To Us!! OFFICERS:
President: John Keil Vice President: Matthew Papertsian
Secretary: Sarah Doherty Treasurer: Jennifer Stieglitz
COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS:
Christian Education: John Keil Evangelism: Sarah Doherty Social Ministry: Frya Barnes
Property: Frya Barnes Outreach: Sarah Doherty Stewardship & Financial Secretary: John Magerlein
Pastor/Parish Relations: Matthew Papertsian Circle School: OPEN Worship & Music: OPEN
Estomih Mtui:Available MaryBeth Soucy: Available Matilda Weekes: Available
JANUARY SUNDAY SERVANTS January 7 January 14 Karen Kuchnicki & -Greeter&Usher- Marilyn Dreyer & John Magerlein Barbara Henninger
Jennifer Stieglitz -Worship Assistant- Amy Gardiner
Mary Beth Soucy -Lector- Ken Gabrielsen
Lee Ann McCarthy -Altar Guild- Karen Magerlein
Susan Papertsian -Counter- Dianne Carroll
Bob Riekert -Communion Assistant- Lee Ann McCarthy
January 21 January 28 Dianne Carroll & -Greeter&Usher- Lois Leonard & Laura Keil Mary Beth Soucy
Lee Ann McCarthy -Worship Assistant- Jennifer Stieglitz
Amy Gardiner -Lector- Kirsten Berger
Karen Magerlein -Altar Guild- Sue Orts
Frya Barnes -Counter- Karen Magerlein
Ken Gabrielsen -Communion Assistant- John Magerlein
February 4 February 11 Karen Kuchnicki & -Greeter&Usher- John Magerlein & Marilyn Dreyer Barbara Henninger
Amy Gardiner -Worship Assistant- Lee Ann McCarthy
Lee Ann McCarthy -Lector- John Magerlein
Lori Esteves -Altar Guild- Lori Esteves
Dianne Carroll -Counter- Susan Papertsian
Bob Riekert -Communion Assistant- Lee Ann McCarthy
READINGS:
1/7 Genesis 1:1-5 Acts 19:1-7 1/14 1 Samuel 3:1-10 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 1/21 Jonah 3:1-5, 10 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 1/28 Deuteronomy 18:15-20 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 2/4 Isaiah 40:21-31 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 2/11 2 Kings 2:1-12 2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Hope in the New Year: A Deeper Power Remember how optimistic you used to be? The hopes you used to have? Where did they go?
Well, they didn't just disappear. They were more or less pushed out of the way by anxiety. More Americans today suffer from undue anxiety, both young and old. We’re worried about our parents or our kids, our spouse, our friends, our grades, going to college, our job, our reputation, our health, our finances or even our country. We find ourselves more pessimistic or sarcastic or even apathetic than we used to be. These feelings are not uncommon. At times we all wish our
particular life situations were different.
Many of us today escape our anxiety for a little while through watching
movies, television, social media, video games, people magazines, or good old-fashioned staying busy.
Another response to distress is positive thinking and optimism. Such a practical philosophy sells a whole lot of books. But it only goes so far, because real life includes failures and uncertainties. We should not pretend that sadness is somehow a weakness when compared to the “positive” feel-good way we're told to be thinking about ourselves.
The Bible gives us a different direction when we are in distress. As Psalm 146 sings, “Our God keeps faith forever.” Think about that. While our emotions change by the hour, our God keeps faith forever. This is our long term hope.
By hope I do not mean optimism, the fantasy that everything will be the way I want tomorrow. Spiritual hope braces itself, and is thus prepared to cope if tomorrow isn't better than today. Despite our best efforts, the future is not fully in our control.
With such a hope, we have the affront to sing out praise to God in our Sunday worship almost as an “act of defiance in a bitter, cynical, make-it-happen world.” Such praise can be an antidote to our despair. Spiritual hope is focused on God's faithfulness to us, and not on ours.
Spiritual hope is linked with the type of patience we find encouraged in the book of James, chapter 5. Normally when we are anxious we are also
impatient. It is natural that we all want events to happen as soon as possible and in the “best” possible way. James is proposing a patience which is uncommon, and therefore given by the Holy Spirit. It is a patience that is rooted in God's long term faithfulness, once again. God may unfold a future that is one we never expected.
There is more help available. When anxious, James chapter 5 also exhorts us to “strengthen our hearts.” This strengthening of our hearts comes as we take advantage of the communities that have been given to us, such as our family
or church. “Patience and suffering is carried when community members watch over and care for one another. No words of slander, no grumbling, no backstabbing, but always speaking and doing the good for the neighbor.” It is characterized by com-passion towards one another, given and received. James encourages us to slow down, be attentive to one another and to not take our friends and relations for grant-ed. God’s will is revealed in God's time.
In 2018, whenever worry is getting the better of you, repeat to yourself “my God is faithful forever. Let me depend on that.”
See you in 2018,
Pastor Arden Strasser
Christian Crafters
Thanks to the 7:00 Monday evening group and
the faithful Tuesday morning group for the fantastic crafts at our 2017 Christmas Fair. Everything looked wonderful. We
did have fun, learned a lot about each other and crafting.
We are taking a break during the month of January. We will gear up for making quilts for Lutheran World Relief starting in February. If
anyone in the congregation has some usable cotton fabric or old cotton sheets or drapes, we sure could repurpose them into quilts. If you are thinking of replacing your blankets, consider donating your
old ones to us to help someone around the world stay warm. Lutheran World Relief does not have a record of where our last years
quilts ended up. It may take over a year before we hear, as communications to some remote areas of the world are limited.
We welcome all helping hands starting Tuesday, February 6, 10:00 am in the Fellowship Hall. Frank suggested the Monday evening group start up in May. All who would like to join in the quilting,
please speak with Lois Leonard.
SUNDAY SERVANTS ARE NEEDED
At the heart of Our Saviour are the many members who dedicate their
talents to serving our church in the position of: Lector, Greeter & Usher,
Worship Assistant, Communion Assistant, Altar Guild, Counter and
Hospitality. Unfortunately over the years we have several members who for
various reasons are not able to help out anymore and so a dedicated few
have been left serving in several positions each week. Serving our church
should never be a burden and so we are asking all to prayerfully consider
where they might volunteer to take an occasional active part in our weekly
worship. Within the next week a sign-up sheet for Sunday Servants will be
found on the link table. Here is a list of the positions and a taste of their
duties. More details of these positions will also be posted:
Worship Assistant: Assists the Pastor up at the Altar for the duration of the service.
Greeter / Usher: Welcomes all at the front door, hands out the bulletins, records the number of attendees each week and collects the offerings during the worship service.
Lector: Reads the First and Second Readings at the Lectern.
Communion Assistant: Offers the cup of wine for intinction during Communion.
Counter: After our service, the counter goes through the Offering plate and
prepares the money collected for the bank deposit, as well as separates the
monies collected into the various categories to be reported in our books.
Categories include: identified contributions, loose cash, moneys for various
specific charities/funds (LWR, Altar Flowers, Lutheran Social Services,
Major Building Improvements, AA, NA, etc…) and deposits the money at
the bank.
Altar Guild: Prior to the Sunday Service, prepares the altar for Worship.
Marks the readings in the bible, ensures needed bread and wine is ready for
service, dresses the altar for the seasonal worship,
cleans altar, services paraments and communion
cups after service, etc,etc.
Hospitality: Brings in refreshments and sets up for
Coffee Hour as well as makes Coffee and cleans
up Community Hall after Coffee Hour.
Please prayerfully consider signing-up to
help out if you are able.
Even if you cannot attend worship every Sunday in a year, the work which you believe in continues every day. Consider
using the automatic electronic funds transfer, which you can easily initiate from our website.
With a simple process, your offering can be transferred automatically from your bank account once each month. It’s easy. At the bottom of our website front page is a green button labeled GIVE ONLINE. When you click it, you are taken to a secure menu where you create an online profile with your address, account number, and offering amount. Your information is 100% safe and protected and you have full control to stop or change your offering at any time.
What’s Your New Year’s
SNOW REMOVAL
Since we lost our volunteers for this, Eric and Mikiko Golberg, we had to turn to professionals to take care of this. We have gotten a quote of $ 80.00 for a snowfall up to 3 inches and for a price 50% higher when we have more than 3 inches. The quote is from Nelson, who is also the person who has done a fine job of keeping our grass cut and trimmed during most of the year.
Since neither Lawn Care nor Snow Removal is in our budget we had asked the congregation for an extra contribution to defray this cost. For Lawn Care we had posted a schedule on the bulletin board where people could sign up. This worked beautifully and all of our Lawn Care was taken care of.
Snow removal is not as predictable, but we would nevertheless appreciate if members could make an extra donation for this.
If you do, please mark your donation 'Snow Removal'. Thank you in advance. Frya Barnes - Property
Bible Study is Back For many people, the bible as a
whole can be intimidating to
handle all alone. That's why it's helpful to have a guide. We are
holding Saturday night bible
studies at 7 pm.
Join us! Expect an engaging and
thought provoking evening, with stories, life applications, and your ideas as well. Pastor is able to translate complex biblical
texts that animate, question and stir the listener. He brings a
wide variety of life experiences that illustrate the journey of faith with which we can identify. Bring a friend!
Martin Luther King Day
It's the 50th anniversary of the Poor People's Campaign,
started by Martin Luther King. Come and commemorate
MLK weekend with our neighboring Houses of Worship,
at Asbury United Methodist Church. We'll learn some
strategies for building peace while standing against hate.
We'll also be updated on the immigration matters in the
NY area. There will be an inspiring speaker, special music,
and home made food. Let's show up in force, on Sunday,
January 14 from 1230 to 230. pm. Agenda for the afternoon is below.
CALL COMMITTEE UPDATE By Sue Orts
In March of 2017, the Call Committee was nominated and formed by John Keil our Church Council president and installed by Vicar Heidgerd. The members are: Bryan Montgomery, Bob Riekert, Matilda Weekes, Mary Beth Soucy, Chuck Cooper and me; Susan Orts, Chairman.
I want to fill you in on some background information on how the Call
Committee is finding a new pastor for our church. In 2015, I led about ten discernment pot lucks and gatherings, and I asked church members to sup-ply information on a survey about their experience with Our Saviour. I used this information along with other information gathered from Kumni Johnson. Kumni had led focus groups a couple of years previous and kept all that information. The information that he gathered, and the infor-mation that I gathered was similar. Not much had changed over a couple of years. I also attended a workshop on Strategic Planning led by the Metro-NY Synod. From all this, I formed a committee which included Church leadership to write a mission and vision statement for our Congregation. The hope was that this would crystallize who we are and
what we do best. I was asked to join the Call Committee because of all the information I had gathered about our parish.
The Call Process began in April when the Synod asked the Committee to start with filling out a very long profile of our congregation called the Ministry Site Profile or MSP. The MSP is very lengthy and comprehensive. It includes the demographics of our Congregation and the community around us. It includes our financial picture and also it is a s urvey of wants and needs to our specific parish. It took the Committee four, two-hour work sessions to complete the MSP and then it was turned over to the Church Council for their review and approval. In June of 2017, we met with the Assistant to the Bishop, Deacon Margy Schmitt-Ajer.
Margy (as she prefers to be called) is our liaison with the Metro NY Synod. She met with us, after reading our survey to make sure that she has a clear picture of what kind of pastor would be best for us. To summarize, here are the main things we said we are looking for: someone who is effective in the pulpit and leads an engaging worship experience; a positive and energetic personality. We call this: preach and teach the Gospel. We also know from our demographic survey, that 30% of our membership is under
19, but our Sunday School has been struggling. We would like someone who has experience with children and maybe some fresh ideas on how to envision Christian education for our youth. We feel that one of the foundations for a successful church, is to have a pastor who is an effective communicator. This person should be knowledgeable or at the very least, be willing to learn new ways of communication, like social media.
We also feel that a good Pastor should also be a good administrator as well. This
person should be able to keep Parish records and work well with support staff.
These are just broad categories of attributes we are searching for. Margy’s job is to
find the right match for us and she has been working very hard to that end. I want
to emphasize that this is a process and during our process, we have come to realize
that we really want and need a full-time pastor. Our Saviour’s financial package is
on the cusp of what the Synod considers full-time. These guidelines are set by the
Synod to help congregations know what is fair compensation based on experience.
It will be up to the Church Council to negotiate the final compensation package.
Margy provides us with three candidate profiles at a time. We meet with her and
she presents each candidate. I then email them and set up a time for the Committee
to place a call. That could be Skype, FaceTime or in one instance a conference call
to the candidate. Before the call is placed, the Committee convenes to review the
profile and formulate questions to help us discern if this person would be good for
Our Saviour, based on the attributes we are looking for. We must interview all three
candidates before we can make a decision about moving on with one or more
candidates. We also ask them to send us a link to either video or audio sermon
which we all review before we meet again. After we interview all three and listen to
their sermon, we have a meeting to discern if any or all of the three presented are
worthy of being pursued. At the same time, these three candidates may be inter-
viewing with other call committees. They are doing their own discernment for what
is right for themselves. Once we have someone we think
may work for us, we will meet them face-to-face. Invite
them to come to the church and see the parsonage, tour
the area and have more general conversations about them,
as a pastor and us, as a congregation. At that time, we
may try to clear up or clarify any concerns we have. The
Synod will then set up a neutral location to have the can-
didate preside over worship and the Call Committee will
attend this service. During this time, we must maintain
confidentiality to the candidate as they may be the pastor
of a nearby congregation, so they probably would not
meet with anyone in the congregation besides members of
the Call Committee. After this, the Committee will meet
again to decide if we would like to recommend this candidate to the Council to be
It's time again for our annual Chili Cook Off, on Sunday,
January 21st! We'll gather in the parish hall at 530 pm for
dinner. We ask everyone to bring some home made chili to
share. In this cold weather, chili warms us inside, and it's fun to
sample different recipes and find your favorite chili.
Perhaps the cooks will even share their recipes with you. After
we settle in, we'll enjoy a short program from Pastor on his work
as a Lutheran missionary.
What is the life of a global missionary? Come and see. Pastor
Arden Strasser served as our missionary with the Lutheran
Churches in Zambia from 2006 to 2014. (Zambia is in central
southern Africa) He will be presenting the life of this national
church and his particular focus on worship, evangelism, and
leadership development, supplemented with many images and
stories.
Having spent 14 years altogether living in southern Africa,
Pastor Arden will also respond to questions around poverty,
economic development, culture, traditional religion,
governance, and prospects for the future. Come for what
promises to be an extraordinary presentation. Invite a friend.
called by Our Saviour. If everyone agrees, then a Letter of Call, which is a kind of
employment contract, will be drawn up and presented to the candidate. If the
candidate agrees to the Letter of Call, the Council will invite the Congregation to a
special Congregational meeting. On that weekend, we will have a social event so
that members of the Congregation can have a meet and greet with the Candidate.
On that Sunday, the candidate will preside over worship. At the end of the
worship service the Congregation will vote to install or reject the candidate as our
new pastor.
So far, we have interviewed six candidates. Of these six, we wanted to pursue one
candidate further, but this candidate was also interviewing for another position.
Currently the synod has let this particular candidate remain on our slate because of
a unique situation, which I am not able to divulge information about. So while
that is happening, the Synod has provided us with three new candidates which we
will start to interview this month. Technically we have four candidates to work
with this time.
We ask for your prayers, patience and understanding as we continue. We are
extremely optimistic about finding a wonderful spiritual leader for Our Saviour.
If you have any thoughts, concerns, or ideas, please do not hesitate to email me:
Have a peaceful and blessed New Year!
January 2018
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
1
2
Choir Practice 7:45pm
AA 7:30pm
3
NA 7:30pm
4
5
6
Bible Study 7pm
AA 7:30pm
7 Baptism of Our Lord Sunday School 9:00am
WorshipService 10:00am
8
9
Choir Practice 7:45pm
AA 7:30pm
10
Danish Home Worship
1:00pm
NA 7:30pm
11
12
Springvale Inn Worship
10:30am
13
Bible Study 7pm
AA 7:30pm
14 Second after Epiphany
Sunday School 9:00am
WorshipService 10:00am
Julia Milstein Baptism
MLK Event at Asbury UMC 12:30-2:30pm
15
16
Choir Practice 7:45pm
AA 7:30pm
17
NA 7:30pm
18
19
20
Bible Study 7pm
AA 7:30pm
HB Sue Montgomery
21 Third after Epiphany
Sunday School 9:00am
WorshipService 10:00am
Council Meeting 11:30am
Chili Cookoff &
Africa Presentation 5:30pm
22
23
Choir Practice 7:45pm
AA 7:30pm
24
NA 7:30pm
25
HB Susie Gardiner
26
27
Bible Study 7pm
AA 7:30pm
28 Fourth after Epiphany
Sunday School 9:00am
WorshipService 10:00am
29
30
Choir Practice 7:45pm
AA 7:30pm
31
NA 7:30pm